I might be in the market for a tablet for the reading capabilities. I've heard Tegra3 stuff might come down in price significantly in a few quarters, so that might be something worth looking into for me if I can find one shaped the way I want it.

so you were incorrect in your assumption. in fact, nearly anything modern is running with at least a 1.6 ghz processor. i'd further suggest that the lack of a true keyboard or input interface on a tablet or phone is generally a massive disadvantage out of the gate. i think i said later that tablets work *really* well for an extremely small number of people, so i wouldn't presume to suggest that your usage is wrong, just that i find the general suggestion that netbooks are useless about as valid as i find suggestions to 'just buy a mac'.

I stand corrected... Most Netbooks before Tablets really took hold had the 1ghz single core processor and a gig of ram.

Now that Netbooks have really fallen out of the limelight in favor of Tablets I really haven't kept up on them. New Netbooks might actually be worth it.

so i'm buying a phone outright and i've narrowed it down to these 3 options. I kind've want an iphone but i'm not sure i can justify spending $300 more than i would be for the galaxy. The Android's look really good to be honest but i don't know if i can cross over after having an iphone 3gs for so long. Was also considering waiting for ICS to come out on the xperia and galaxy before i picked one up so i guess if you guys know of anything brilliant coming out in Q1 of 2012 that'd work too.

I don't know much about the Xperia one, but I've gotten my hands on a Galaxy S2 and it is a nice, smooth piece of hardware. Consistently tops out most cellphone benchmarks out there too, although the Galaxy Nexus is finishing close as well and has a higher resolution screen(although I hear it's not quite as vibrant as the Galaxy S2). So you might want to consider that one as well. Not sure what you can get on that one in terms of price.

I don't know much about the Xperia one, but I've gotten my hands on a Galaxy S2 and it is a nice, smooth piece of hardware. Consistently tops out most cellphone benchmarks out there too, although the Galaxy Nexus is finishing close as well and has a higher resolution screen(although I hear it's not quite as vibrant as the Galaxy S2). So you might want to consider that one as well. Not sure what you can get on that one in terms of price.

I think it'll be about $800 so there's no way i'm getting that over a $500 galaxy s2. I'm leaning towards the s2 at the moment but i've read really good things about the xperia. My main concern with it is that it's got a single core processor, everything i've heard about it is that it can more than handle anything that's thrown at it these days. just worried that it might not be all that future proofed considering i'll most likely have this phone for 2 years or so.

so i'm buying a phone outright and i've narrowed it down to these 3 options. I kind've want an iphone but i'm not sure i can justify spending $300 more than i would be for the galaxy. The Android's look really good to be honest but i don't know if i can cross over after having an iphone 3gs for so long. Was also considering waiting for ICS to come out on the xperia and galaxy before i picked one up so i guess if you guys know of anything brilliant coming out in Q1 of 2012 that'd work too.

Help me out wise people of NFLDC.

Did something happen to your previous phone? Close to your upgrade date? Or are you wanting to buy a new just cause? I work for a cell phone company and depending on your situation they should be able to work something out to get you into a new phone without having to pay full retail. If you're close to your upgrade see if you can buy out the remaining portion of your contract to be eligible that day. Paying a prorated ETF would be better than paying full retail for a phone. Depending on how close you are and how long you've been a customer they should be willing to work with you a little bit. Can't guarantee it will work but this is the route I always take when calling into customer service to see what can done to help a customer out. Also if you go that route don't be a dick about it, being civilized about the situation helps out a lot.

So I tried VLingo. At first it seemed ok. But after awhile, it stopped working, and reading my text messages aloud in my car is dangerous territory...

So I deleted it. Was hoping for it to be more like Siri, and less like crap.

I still use Vlingo and I love it. It's definitely not Siri by any means but I love Car Mode. It's all I use it for.
I use the Google Voice search for all the other voice activated functions on the phone.
(Setting alarms, calender updates, navigation, etc)
It allows for 2 way texting without ever taking your eyes off the road. I don't know how you could dislike that.
I don't see how that could be more dangerous than actually texting either.
(Unless it's from the playa playa perspective)

Actually, I place my phone on Car Mode when I'm playing MW3 since as soon as I look down to check my phone, someone kills me.
This has helped a little bit but not much. I still suck at MW3.

I did a manual update to 2.3 weeks back, but I guess because gingerbread is finally being issued through automatic updates, my phone keeps telling me I can upgrade to 4.0, but when I click 'update now' it just sits there with the "rebooting now" prompt but nothing happens.

As the official U.S. release date still hangs in confirmation limbo, Verizon sources have told CNET that the Galaxy Nexus has once again been delayed by Verizon. Earlier this week we heard rumors that the Ice Cream Sandwich-enabled smartphone would land in the U.S. on Friday, December 9th. Those leaked documents were from an “authorized Verizon retailer” that said the selling of the device could not begin until 12/9/11.

CNET’s Verizon sources say that most Verizon stores thought that they would begin selling the Galaxy Nexus on Friday, but are now hearing that the release will be delayed.

Phones/tablets are running on low power ARM processors, while modern netbooks run on a low power x86 based Intel Atom processor.

The difference between the two is basically MIPS, pipeline length, ops per cycle (some processors can do 5+ ops per cycle, per processing unit), IOPS to disk drive, RAM access time, etc. Also, x86 processors have a much larger set of assembly operations that are far more well tuned (ie, you won't find any AES-256 op codes on an ARM processor, or any native AVX ones either)

All of which favor the netbook platform. Furthermore, you have a larger power supply (battery) in a netbook.

The "gigahertz myth" is worth Googling. The same things Steve Jobs said about Power PC macs vs Intel PCs is true about ARM SoCs vs Intel/AMD systems, today - that is, the clock speed numbers lie.

The only advantages I would say a tablet has over a netbook are the touch screens (they tend to be nicer than the **** in a netbook, if it even has one) and the software is custom for it so that it basically loads instantly and allows you to get to facebook much faster. If you aren't a general social network user (or a few other things), a netbook will blow a tablet away.

Consider this: if you have programs that work on a netbook and there are not necessarily free apps of them on the tablet (of equal or better quality), then you are getting a significantly worse experience. (like Photoshop has nothing even close to it on a tablet. Every netbook can run it though, even if it sucks badly.)

I like my phone to browse the web when it is inconvenient to get my laptop out, but I would never consider replacing a laptop (or netbook) with a phone.

__________________
I was gone for 2 months doing things I can't talk about. It might happen again, but that's just the nature of what I do and who I am.

Phones/tablets are running on low power ARM processors, while modern netbooks run on a low power x86 based Intel Atom processor.

The difference between the two is basically MIPS, pipeline length, ops per cycle (some processors can do 5+ ops per cycle, per processing unit), IOPS to disk drive, RAM access time, etc. Also, x86 processors have a much larger set of assembly operations that are far more well tuned (ie, you won't find any AES-256 op codes on an ARM processor, or any native AVX ones either)

All of which favor the netbook platform. Furthermore, you have a larger power supply (battery) in a netbook.

The "gigahertz myth" is worth Googling. The same things Steve Jobs said about Power PC macs vs Intel PCs is true about ARM SoCs vs Intel/AMD systems, today - that is, the clock speed numbers lie.

The only advantages I would say a tablet has over a netbook are the touch screens (they tend to be nicer than the **** in a netbook, if it even has one) and the software is custom for it so that it basically loads instantly and allows you to get to facebook much faster. If you aren't a general social network user (or a few other things), a netbook will blow a tablet away.

Consider this: if you have programs that work on a netbook and there are not necessarily free apps of them on the tablet (of equal or better quality), then you are getting a significantly worse experience. (like Photoshop has nothing even close to it on a tablet. Every netbook can run it though, even if it sucks badly.)

I like my phone to browse the web when it is inconvenient to get my laptop out, but I would never consider replacing a laptop (or netbook) with a phone.

Like I stated earlier... I was comparing newer phones to older models of netbooks.

I didn't realize how far they have come in such a short time. There was a long time where netbooks only offered a single core 1ghz processor and a gig of ram. Compare that to new tablets that have 1.2ghz quad core processors and a gig of ram.

But what you said later is true as well and I stated something along those lines earlier. Windows 7 is a bloated OS for the netbook (older model) to run efficiently. Tablets on the other hand have a OS that is designed to run with those specs and tends to act quicker.

You would lose 4G and speed (spec wise) unless you tried to get a 4s which are hard to come by

Remember,

I live in a town where we JUST got the Iphone not more than a year ago. Android dominated pretty heavily in this area and i have a friend that works at verizon that says they don't sell a whole lot of them just cause it took soo long for Verizon to get the IPhone. We didn't have AT&T until they bought Alltel and all its customers. I'm just tired of waiting...